POULTRY PRODUCTS from ‘ the feed bin ’

the feed bin's aim is to help clients to save time and money, whilst providing the best for their POULTRY.

At the feed bin we often have specials on offer. Unfortunately we do not have the space to display them all on this page, so please ‘Like Us’ on and watch this and that space!

Cockadoodledoooooo…

Back garden farming to the feed bin family is nothing new. But thanks to Hugh, Jamie and Gordon the practise of chicken keeping has been highlighted in the media and living ‘the good life’ is now quite common. There’s nothing quite like breaking open a freshly laid egg to find a rich orange yolk. Ooo lovely with soldiers!

the feed bin family have over 25 years experience of chicken keeping. We are indeed back-garden farmers… Many years past we hatched fertile eggs, and raised our own flock from chicks. Mainly we purchase point of lay hens to restock.

Sadly the feed bin family have twice experienced a visit from the fox in the last few years, and so have many of our customers. Therefore when keeping poultry, Fox proofing has to be a priority (we dug down a foot, and raised our run to seven feet tall – no casualties since x fingers). Foxes will happily kill all your poultry, for no apparent reason, leaving behind total carnage and destruction. So skirt your runs, or dig down as far as you can manage. If a roof is not an option go up as high as possible…. With the urban fox population booming a visit from your local fox is a likely occurrence – unfortunately not even a dog will deter them.

Otherwise keeping chickens isn’t too difficult…To help you along further we offer FREE Small Holder Club membership and information Folder to all new customers purchasing ANY brand of poultry food or bedding.

WATER
Chickens drink huge volumes of water daily. The drinker or container should be big enough to provide atleastone pint of water per hen, and be cleaned and refreshed daily. Care must be taken in winter times that the water is de-iced (simply removing the ice – do not use any chemicals!!) and always available.

FEEDING
Hens (females) will begin to lay at approximately 16-18 weeks of age. Providing [hopefully] an egg a day, if they have a good diet, enough water and plenty of room. Happy hens = happy eggs, a true statement. They need to be fed a Layers Pellet or Meal / Mash / Crumb. This will provide all the nutrients required for them to be healthy and produce eggs. the feed bin supply layers meal / pellets from several companies, vegetarian no-hexane formulations, ones specifically designed for the Ex-Battery Hens, organic formulations and specialist ranges for the showing chickens…
The addition of grit in the diet is advised. This grit may be mixed flint grit or oyster shell and should be freely available, or added to their feeding tray or hopper to encourage the hens to eat it. Mixed Corn, Kibbled Maize or Wheat should be fed to the hens in the afternoon, as a treat. The reasoning for this is the hens will eat until they are full, therefore you need them to eat the nutritious food first! Foraging and access to green food is advised.

FREE RANGE
Free ranging poultry are bound to be happier than those cooped up in tiny rabbit runs. Letting your hens wander around the garden is great – they will scratch it up, clearing the weeds and greenery. Good in autumn after the fruit & veg harvest, not so good in springtime when all your plants are popping out of the ground. So a compound or means of fencing them off to certain areas would be necessary. We at the feed bin use lettuce tunnels to allow access to different parts of our garden – like RotaStak but chicken style! If you are worried about attracting flies in your garden when chicken keeping, we at the feed bin would recommend the use of the Red Top Fly Trap….

HOUSING & REDMITES
The house needs to be secure from foxes, provide a perching area and nest boxes. If you can afford eglu type house made of plastic, cleaning and maintenance is simple. If your house is a converted shed (like ours) or made of wood cleaning takes more time. Red Mites and poultry seemingly go together. An infestation can lead to anaemia and possible death of your hens. Controlling Red Mites is possible but an endless task, removing them not really an option. Red mites are nocturnal. They live within the crevices of the house [love that tongue & groove wood], in the dark, so only crawl onto the chickens when they are laying an egg or at night when they are perching. the feed bin can supply many preparations for the treatment of red mites. We treat our hen house in the following way… We use a powdered product made from microscopic diatoms, which is made into a paste and painted onto the walls, ceiling and floor. This same product is added to the dust bath area – enabling the hens to dust themselves and coated onto the perches and nest boxes. During the moist warm parts of the year when red mites are most active, we also spray a diluted formula for the control of red mites in the house at night whilst the birds are roosting. The type of bedding and nesting material can help too in the reduction of red mites. DO NOT USE UNTREATED WHEAT / BARLEY STRAW. Yes, it’s cheap and most commonly known about, but mites LOVE straw. Avoid it. Use a wood-pellet, woodchip (not flake), chopped hemp straw, chopped oil seed rape straw or [specifically manufactured for poultry] medicated chopped straw on the floor. All are biodegradable from 3 to 8 months. For the nest boxes recycle… get yourself a shredding machine, and utilise the free resource of paper daily put through your letterbox – shredded – in the nest box. Easily compostable / disposable. No shredding machine..? the feed bin can supply bales of ready-to-use diced paper or cardboard bedding.

the feed bin is able to cater for chicks and growing birds, breeding birds, and finishing – for those birds destined for the table. the feed bin supplies poultry foods suitable for Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Guinea Fowl, Turkeys and Quail.

Please click on a logo image to be taken to our facebook page where you will find an album, within it are a selection of the products available from that brand. If there is no link..the fact the brands’ logo is shown informs that the feed bin is able to obtain products by this company so simply ask for what you need.